Protective garment



B. M. HART PROTECTIVE GARMENT Filed Dec. 25, 1953 May 28, 1957 1 III,

INVENTOR. I FIG. 7 @4477 MM ATTo RNEYs United States Patent Office PROTECTIVE GARMENT Betty Miller Hart, Little Silver, N. J.

Application December 23, 1953, Serial No. 399,874

3 Claims. (Cl. 24)

This invention relates to a protective garment and specifically to a garment designed 'to protect the clothing of mothers or others during the operation of feeding infants, particularly those that are bottle fed.

After feeding an infant, particularly young babies who are fed only or mostly liquids, it is considered good practice on .the part of the parent or nurse to rest the baby in an upright position against the shoulder and pat it gently on the back to relieve the baby of air or gas. This is often referred to as burping a baby.

Not infrequently, and with some babies, almost always, some of the food or liquid will be regurgitated, and since the hands of the adult tending the baby are engaged in holding and patting it, it is quite impossible to maneuver a towel or napkin in a manner to avoid soiling of the garment of the parent or nurse. Such use of a towel or diaper is inconvenient and results in unnecessarily increasing the number of items requiring washing.

The garment disclosed herein is designed to be made of a water-proof material such as plastic sheeting or treated woven fabric, to cover one shoulder and part of the front and back of the wearer, to be adapted for use on either shoulder interchangeably, and to have its shoulder portion provided with means for receiving and retaining one or more sheets of facial tissue of standard size, or specially manufactured pads of similar material. Said tissues or the like can be readily inserted or removed while the garment is being worn.

A practical embodiment of the invention is shown in the accompanying drawing, in which Fig. 1 represents a perspective view of a complete garment;

Fig. 2 represents a plan view of the cut out blank shaped to constitute one of the symmetrical halves of the garment of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 represents a section through the shoulder portion of the garment of Fig. 1, taken on the line III-III;

Fig. 4 represents, in perspective, a modified form of the garment;

Fig. 5 represents a plan view of the cut out blank shaped to constitute one of the symmetrical halves of the garment of Fig. 4;

Fig. 6 represents a section through the shoulder portion of the garment of Fig. 4, taken on the line VIVI, and

Fig. 7 rep-resents a detail plan view of the tape unit constituting part of the garment of Fig. 4.

As shown in Figs. 1 and 2, and referring only to one of the symmetrical halves of the garment, the main body 1 thereof is of generally triangular shape merging with a straight extension forming the shoulder portion 2.

leats 3, 3 extend from the bottom edge 4 vertically across the body portion and along the margins of the shoulder portion. The lower ends of the pleats are held in place by the binding 5, secured along the edge 4, and which may conveniently be extended to provide ties 6, 6. The lateral edges of the body 1 are, desirably, hemmed as indicated at 7, 7 and separate hems 8, 8 are formed along the edges of the shoulder portionz. In theshoulder portion, the pleats 3, 3 are left free along their inner edges 3', 3' to form elongated lateral pockets, but at the juncture of the body and shoulder portions the pleats are secured to the body material along the short transverse lines 9, 9.

The body portion 1 is preferably not, itself, symmetrical but has one side shorter and more nearly vertical than the other, said shorter side being provided with an additional tying tape 10 and being intended to lie approximately below the wearers arm, while the longer side extends across the wearers front or back.

For economy in cutting from a web of material, the complementary front and back members are preferably an; separately and joined along the edge 11 (Fig. 2) before pleating and heinming; or the complete garment 'can'be made from a single piece of material symmetrical with respect to the line 11.

The width of the shoulder portion in the completed garment, including the pockets under the edges 3', 3, is designed to correspond closely to the normal width of a folded facial tissue, i. e., approximately 4 /2", and the distance from the lines 9, 9 on one half of the garment to the corresponding lines on the other half should exceed slightly the length of a tissue, i. e., approximately 9 /2". It is evident that one or several folded tissues A can be put in place very readily by tucking their longitudinal sides into the pockets under the edges 3', 3'. The tissues lie in exactly the proper position to receive and hold or absorb such liquids (or semi-solids) as may be ejected by the burping infant; the sides of the tissues are firm-1y held in the pockets, due to the curvature of the garment over the wearers shoulder in that area; and soiled tissues can be removed and replaced by clean ones almost instantaneously, requiring the use of only one hand. The grip of the pockets on the sides of the tissues may be improved by adding a line of stitching (as with elastic thread) spaced a short distance from the edges 3, 3'.

In the modified form of garment shown in Figs. 4 and 5, the body portion 12 is substantially the same, both in the blank (Fig. 5) and in the garment (Fig. 4), as the body portion 1 of Figs. 1 and 2, being provided with pleats 13, 13, binding 14 and ties 15, 15. The shoulder portion 16 is, however, much narrower in the blank and has its edges turned over only once to form the simple hem 17, 17 shown in Fig. 6. A separate tissue-holding frame (Fig. 7) is made by fastening (stitching) across pieces 18, 18 of elastic webbing to the side pieces 19, 19 of the same or similar material, the assembled frame being applied to the shoulder portion of the garment, as by stitching along the outer edges and across the ends of the pieces 19, 19.

Tissues B are held in place in the garment of Fig. 4 not only by having their longitudinal edges retained in the pocket formed between the webbing 19, 19 and the portion 16, but also by having their ends tucked under the cross pieces 13, 18, as clearly appears in Fig. 4.

Each form of the garment shown can be Worn on either the right or the left shoulder of the user. The pleats in the half which, as worn, happens to be the front, provide fullness and ensure a neat fit. One standard size of the garment can be used by wearers of all sizes, limited only by the length of the ties, 6, 10 and 15, but a range of sizes (small, medium, large) can easily be provided. The under-arm edges of the front and back body portions may, if desired, be permanently stitched together instead of being merely tied. Plastic sheeting is recommended as the basic material for this garment, since such sheeting is inexpensive, durable},

water-proof, washable and available in attractive colors and patterns.

It is evident that various changes may be made in the construction, form and arrangement of the several parts without departing from the spirit and scope' of my invention, and hence I do not intend to be limited .to the specific embodiment herein shown and described except as set forth in the appended claims.

What I claim is:

- 1. A garment of the character described compris ing, symmetrical front and back portions of generally triangular outline, each said portion having spaced vertical pleats extending substantially from the top to the bottom of said portions, a straight shoulder portion more than four inches Wide connecting said front and back portions, all said portions being of waterproof material, strips of material secured along the edges of the shoulder portion and projecting inwardly therefrom to form elongated pockets between said strips and the surface of said shoulder portion, said pockets occupying no more than a minor proportion of the width of said shoulder portion and extending substantially throughout the length thererease? Y s i 41. of, and complementary fastening devices associated with the lower part of the front and back portions for securing the garment in position on the body of a wearer.

2. A garment according to claim 1 in which the pocketforrning strips are integral extensions across the shoulder portion of two vertical pleats.

3. A garment according to claim 1 in which the pocketforming strips are of elastic material and which includes two transversely extending parallel strips of elastic material connected adjacent their ends to said first-named strips and spaced apart by a distance less than the length of a normal folded facial tissue.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,344,845 Baldeschwieler Mar. 21, 1944 2,466,184 Riggs Apr. 5, 1949 2,563,420 Roe Aug. 7, 1951 2,575,163 Donovan Nov. 13, 1951 2,580,388 Allen Jan. 1, 1952 2,587,101 Blalock et al. Feb. 26, 1952 2,617,105 Backman Nov. 11, 1952 

